Benjamonster's TV

As networks are unveiling their schedules, CBS was still in the business of cancelling some shows. They axed The Odd Couple after three seasons and Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders after two. The Odd Couple was able to cheat death last year by having a better than expected late spring run. It even managed to land on the fall schedule this year after CBS expanded its comedy hours. But it was easily the weak link of the Monday sitcom block and ended its season early. Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders was an underperformer last year that also managed to get renewed partly due to its worldwide appeal with its setting and the brand name. But it could never get itself going this year. Spinoffs of Criminal Minds have now lasted a total of three seasons while the mother ship is heading into its 13th season in the fall.

CBS has cancelled The Great Indoors after one season. The show got the best lead-in on CBS, airing after The Big Bang Theory . It had a very up and down year. There were weeks where it aired behind a new episode of Big Bang and struggled to get 50% retention and then there were weeks where it performed surprisingly well. But the tide turned against it as the season went on and it did very poorly in a couple Monday airings, indicating it would be in big trouble without its lead-in.

Another veteran comedy was given the boot today when CBS cancelled 2 Broke Girls after six seasons. The show has hopped around the CBS schedule and was a solid utility player for the network with a strong syndication run on TBS. But it wasn't owned by CBS, and that matters a whole lot these days. The show premiered to great fanfare and huge ratings as it followed the big Ashton Kutcher debut on Two and a Half Men and got the best premiere numbers for a comedy in years. It could never become the anchor CBS hoped it could, but it always seemed to do better when it was plugged into a slot and expectations were lower. 2 Broke Girls was part of the heralded 2011-12 class of freshmen that saw 20 out of 47 come back for a second season but they are quickly disappearing with Last Man Standing also cancelled this week and it looking dicey at best for New Girl . The only shows officially coming back next year from that class are Scandal , which will end after next season, and Once Upon a T...

In a very unsurprising move, NBC has cancelled The Blacklist: Redemption . The spinoff of The Blacklist replaced the mother ship for a couple months this spring and did worse than the already fading original. A Blacklist spinoff may have worked a couple years ago, but not now. Star Ryan Eggold will be returning to The Blacklist .

Thursday night was ABC's night for lots of cancellations, renewals, and pilot pickups. On the cancellation pile is American Crime after three seasons, Secrets and Lies, Dr. Ken, The Real O'Neals, and The Catch after two seasons, and Imaginary Mary after one season. American Crime has been a decorated broadcast drama, nominated and winning many awards. But it has always been low rated and season three really took a dive as the show dipped as low as a 0.3 demo. Secrets and Lies had a surprising first season in spring 2015 but than sat on the shelf for over a year and came back to low ratings on Sunday night this past fall. Dr. Ken was a good pair with Last Man Standing in season one but slipped this season and when Last Man got cancelled, the lesser Dr. Ken 's demise was inevitable. The Real O'Neals and Imaginary Mary shared the Tuesday 9:30pm slot and couldn't get much traction but ABC has an embarrassment of riches with family comedies and didn't need these tw...

FOX handed out three cancellations today to freshman shows as APB, Son of Zorn, and Making History were all shown the door. APB premiered to a surprising 1.5 demo the day after the Super Bowl, equaling its lead-in 24: Legacy . But it crashed to a 1.0 the next week and was fractional after that for the rest of its run. FOX was deservedly criticized for leaving it on the air when it had Lucifer sitting on the bench. Son of Zorn and Making History were from the same creators (they are also creators of The Last Man on Earth , which was renewed yesterday). Zorn was low-rated but had a couple football-inflated episodes. But with the amount of advance time the animated/live action hybrid needed to make episodes, it seemed less likely as time went on. Making History didn't air until March and got no football inflated episodes and has hovered around a 0.6-0.7 demo for much of its run. Yet to hear their fate on FOX are New Girl, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Exorcist, Scream Queens, Shots Fi...

Two cancellations were handed down that are surprising to different extents. Last Man Standing was cancelled by ABC after six seasons and 130 episodes. This show has always had tough negotiations because it comes from an outside studio and Tim Allen's salary is high. But the ratings have always tipped things in its favor and really, it should have again. The show aired on Tuesdays for a year but since Fall 2012, it has been a reliable and steady staple on Friday nights. It has had a very loyal audience and this seems wrong. I don't claim to know all about the business side of TV but we have a network that seems poised to renew Once Upon a Time and Quantico while cancelling this show. I know there are financial considerations but this is a show still capable of bringing eyeballs to the network and it did very well with little to no advertising for years. It also has done well in syndication. I wouldn't be shocked to see a network like Freeform or CMT try to pick this up, b...

FOX announced the cancellation of two veteran dramas today. Sleepy Hollow was cancelled after four seasons and  Rosewood after two. Sleepy Hollow was hot out of the gate in Fall 2013 with its crazy, buzzy first season. But after a long hiatus before season two, it could never get its mojo back and it limped along. It underwent a creative reboot for this season but was banished to Fridays and so far off the buzz meter by then. Rosewood got the prime pre- Empire slot last season and did quite well for awhile leading into TV's top show at the time. But this year, it was given a Thursday lead-off slot and it didn't do well at all before being banished to Fridays alongside Sleepy Hollow .

The busiest week of the year is the week before Upfronts, where there are tons of cancellations, renewals, and pilot pickups. CW got things rolling on Monday afternoon with the formality of cancelling No Tomorrow and Frequency . The two dramas were the new CW shows in the fall and both got off to low starts and settled around a 0.2 demo with occasional 0.3s. CW almost always picks up new shows for full seasons but that didn't happen for either of these two shows, which was a bad sign. With these cancellations, the only CW shows that don't know their fate are iZombie and The Originals .

We'll get tons of upfront news next week but the beginnings of it started to trickle in Thursday night with some NBC news. In addition to pilot pickups, they officially cancelled Emerald City , which should come as no surprise to anyone. After being in development for years, it finally premiered in January. Airing on Friday night, it premiered to disappointing ratings and dropped from there, regularly getting a 0.6 demo. The Wizard of Oz adaptation wasn't able to tap into the cult audience that Grimm found for many years on Fridays.

It's May and that means we're going to start getting lots of cancellations, renewals, and pilot pickups. That started today with the cancellations of two FOX shows: Pitch and You the Jury . Pitch , centered on the first female MLB player, had some acclaim and attention and came from the creator of NBC's mega-hit new show, This is Us . But Pitch struggled mightily in its Thursday night slot and was uneven creatively despite the prestige feel and promising cast and plot. It always seemed like an odd fit on FOX too. FOX also quietly cancelled You the Jury after two quiet Friday airings earlier this month. It got pulled off the air quickly after being a megabomb even by FOX Friday standards. We will probably never hear of the critically panned reality show again.

NBC quietly cancelled Powerless this week by pulling the final three episodes from the schedule. The superhero comedy was already pulled at the last minute a couple times for Trial & Error reruns but now there are no immediate plans to air these last three episodes, sealing its fate. Superstore will air repeats at 8pm leading into new episodes at 8:30pm for the next couple weeks.

In just the second instance this whole season, a show has been pulled from a network's lineup. ABC cancelled Time After Time today after four weeks and five episodes. Despite tons of promotion, the time traveling drama delivered a weak 2.5 million viewers and 0.7 demo in its two hour debut on March 5. It has since crashed as low as 1.8 million viewers and a 0.4 demo. It will be replaced for now with Match Game  while the equally low-rated American Crime will remain on the air and will probably be allowed to finish its run this spring.

In the first instance of the entire 2016-17 season, a show has been pulled early from the schedule. CBS has yanked Doubt after just two airings. It will be replaced by a Bull repeat this coming week and then the new season of Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders starting March 8. While CBS isn't officially calling it a cancellation, this is the first time a show has been pulled immediately from a schedule. There was one show with its order trimmed ( Notorious ) and several other shows that did not get additional episodes ordered. But this is the first to be instantly pulled. How crazy that it took until February.

CBS quietly made official something that has been a foregone conclusion for awhile: Rush Hour has been cancelled. The show got a late March premiere and seemed to be a low priority for CBS so this is no surprise when you consider that and the anemic ratings. Though it was not made official, it is widely believed that Limitless has been cancelled as well.

Despite a solid second season effort, NBC cancelled The Mysteries of Laura after two seasons and 38 episodes. The Mysteries of Laura started as a solid but old skewing drama on NBC's Wednesday night crime lineup. It dipped a lot in the spring and seemed to get a mercy renewal by NBC when all their new shows failed last year. However, it returned to the Weds 8pm slot and was one of the very few shows on TV this season to not tie or hit a series low in the demo. It never went below a 1.0 demo and the complete failure of Heartbeat in the same slot later in the season seemed to help Laura 's chances. But space is tight on NBC with lots of successful dramas already airing and tons of pilots picked up in the drama department so that doomed Laura 's fate.

NBC cleaned house today by cancelling five shows: Undateable, Heartbeat, Game of Silence, Crowded, and Telenovela . Undateable was cancelled after three abridged seasons. It had a surprisingly sturdy summer run in 2014 and was then brought back for midseason in 2015. It was the only comedy renewed on NBC for the 2015-16 with the unique, some might say gimmicky, concept of airing live episodes on Friday nights. It was fairly steady and probably not a complete disaster all things considered, but it didn't get the buzz or ratings necessary to get a fourth season. The other four shows were all freshmen who got a preview after The Voice but couldn't hack it in their regular timeslots. Heartbeat got benched from a fall slot and the conditions were far less favorable when it finally premiered in late March. Game of Silence was completely ignored on Thursdays. Crowded has been quiet on Sundays and always had a worse chance than its still-bubble companion The Carmichael Show . Tel...

In the least newsworthy news of the day, FOX officially cancelled the weak freshmen dramas Minority Report and Second Chance . Minority Report debuted in a favorable Monday 9pm slot but it was DOA and saw its episode order trimmed while being allowed to air out its episodes in that same Monday slot. Second Chance didn't get its episode order cut but it did get benched to Fridays after just a couple weeks. This news was a foregone conclusion months ago, FOX just made it official today.

FOX cancelled four low rated freshman comedies tonight: Grandfathered, The Grinder, Cooper Barrett's Guide to Surviving Life, and Bordertown . Grandfathered and The Grinder both had a shot for a renewal. Grandfathered seemed to have a better chance before posting some real stinker ratings in recent weeks while The Grinder always had minuscule ratings but it did have critical support. However, neither show really deserved to be back for a second season and I think FOX made the right decision here. They just could never catch on and The Grinder especially was lucky to get a full season. Two other shows that were well below the bubble were also officially cancelled: Cooper Barrett's Guide to Surviving Life , which got pulled from the schedule in April, and Bordertown , which has seen microscopic ratings since it got shoved to 7pm on Sundays back in late March.

ABC sent shockwaves on Thursday night by cancelling some longtime favorites but it's clear this is a new regime and some of these moves needed to happen. The most surprising was Castle , which was cancelled after eight seasons. The show has spent its entire run in the Monday 10pm slot, much to the chagrin of schedule followers and analysts like myself. It was always a decent performing show and ABC's only reliable procedural drama. But it continued to reap the benefits of one of ABC's best slots for years, following hits Dancing with the Stars and The Bachelor . Finally something else will get a chance. A short renewal for Castle seemed quite likely but there was also backlash when fans learned that female lead Stana Katic was not asked back for season nine. An alternate ending was shot in the event of this cancellation happening and will air on Monday in what will now be the series finale. Another long running cancellation that was surprising to some was Nashville ...